This is No Longer a Game
by ticktock22
Summary: Lily Crossard is a 12-year-old girl living in District 6. She has never had the best if luck, so when the 22nd Hunger Games roll around, things don't turn out so good. Lily doesn't look strong, but she also has a knack for proving people wrong.


**Hi everyone! I hope you like my story. It starts out kind of slow, but believe me, it will pick up speed. I hope you like it! The first chapter is just a back story really.  
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Chapter 1: Life

As the ground shook with tremendous force, I let out another high-pitched scream of a 6-year-old.

"It's okay, Lily. We'll be okay," Caul said as he tried to calm me down. "It will be over soon."

I was so scared. My mother had told me about the bombings she experienced in the Dark Days, but nothing could have prepared my little mind for this. Another bomb dropped, and I started bawling hysterically. "Mommy! Daddy! Help!" I buried my face in Caul's shirt for comfort. I could hear people screaming everywhere; it was if they were surrounding us. One thought kept on banging against by skull: _Make it stop. Why won't it stop?_

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><p>It was sunny that day. I love a good sunny day. To me, they symbolize hope, love and pure survival. I am always anxious to step out onto the warmed and tingly grass the first chance I get when I realize it's going to be a bright day, but I usually get pulled back in by my frustrated mother yelling, "Lily Crossard, don't you even think about going outside until you help clean this place up! You are twelve. You should know better!"<p>

My mother has always said that the sun was shining the day I was born. Not only in District 6, but in her heart. She and my father loved me even though I was so small. I was born as month early and I was tiny, weak, and sickly. The midwife said that I would not I would not live long, and that my parents should not even bother naming me so they wouldn't get too attached.

It was very hard on my parents, who were both 29 years old at the time, and would probably have to explain to their 3-year-old daughter, Neclina, why she didn't have a baby sister any more. My persistent crying, screaming and coughing nearly drove my parents insane. They just couldn't stand it and my sister was just confused.

But I proved the doctor wrong. I didn't die. I stopped coughing and screaming all the time, but started to grow. The doctor came back and took a look at me. She said I probably would survive but would most likely have a mental or physical disability. My parents were saddened by the news, but were filled joy to know that I would live.

My mother decided to name me Lily because she wanted to make sure, disabled or not, I was at least the sweetest person she knew, and she loved absolutely loved lilies. But once again, I proved the doctor wrong. My parents noticed I could run and jump like the other children, and I learned as quickly as them too, if not, quicker. I grew up with my family and lived happily as a little girl could with my family that I loved.

My mother and my father met through school and became friends and then, something more. My mother is a slender woman with thick, blond hair that just goes past her shoulders, and she has green eyes like darkened emeralds. Her appearance is a common among the merchant class. Her father and mother ran a small clothing and fabric shop, which she has now inherited. My mother always enjoys help in the shop, but Neclina is much better at it than me.

My father is strong, but not muscular, and has caramel hair (I've only seen caramel in the windows of stores, but it looks a lot like it: kind of half blond, half brown) with magically stunning blue eyes. Those eyes are the ones that made my mother fall for him. He is a classic example of a man from the medicine-making class known as the Remediers, though Remediers' eyes vary from blue, green or a combination of both. My father has one older brother, unlike my mother who is an only child. I know him as Uncle Skark. He looks a lot like my father, except he has darker, curlier hair and less intense blue eyes, but is more willowy and tall

Uncle Skark is one who works in the fields, picking plants that will be used as medicine. These people are simple called Field-workers. He used to have a wife and son, but his wife died after giving birth and his son died six months later from a cough. My father and his brother, like my sister and I, had parents form different classes. Their mother was a Field-worker and their father was a Remedier. They died after my father turned eighteen.

I didn't, and still don't, fit in with the kids my age. They ostracized me because I would say weird, but true, things for my age. I would tell them how trees and flowers were alive. All of the children looked at me like I was crazy and no one ever wanted to play with me. I entertained myself and my imagination was my game. But when I reached five, I became too lonely and desperate for friends, but then in the field where all of the children play, I found them. There were two girls playing alone near the large wood fence marking the end of the field and District 6. They paid no attention to each other for they were very preoccupied with themselves. One was mumbling to herself and was walking in all different directions as if she was pacing, and the other seemed to be staring at a rock. I approached the mumbling one first because if she was willing to talk to herself, she might have been willing to talk to me. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"What did you say? I can't hear what you said. Why don't you come inside and talk?" the odd girl asked me in a casual tone with a hint of craziness. She walked near me and seemed to open an invisible door. "Come on into my house. Don't be shy, now." I got a closer look at the girl and see that she had short blond hair and dark green eyes. Her parents were clearly merchants, but she seemed a bit skinny. That could have just been because she was just taller than average, but I didn't take much notice to it.

"You live here?" I asked "Doesn't it get cold?"

"No," she answered. "Not with these thick walls." The strange girl patted on an imaginary wall. "I don't spend much time here anyway."

"That's not a wall! There's no house here. It's just imaginary!" I told nearly screamed at her.

"No it's not. It's a house. It's here. I'm not crazy," she answered in a calm manner.

"Yes you are!" I said laughingly. "But I like crazy people. They're fun people. I'm a little crazy myself. Mind if I sit down?" I asked the girl.

"Sure! What's your name?" she asked me as I pulled over an imaginary chair and sat on the ground. She joined me.

"Lily. And you?"

"Neldge." We ate a pretend lunch and Neldge smiled, looked at me and said, "No one, except you Lily, seems to understand how much fun an imaginary house can be. We need to play together more often."

"Definitely." I then noticed the girl with the rock who was now hitting it with another rock. "Excuse me for a moment, but I'm going to see if that girl wants to play with us," I said to Neldge.

"Okay," she replied.

As I strolled over to the girl, I took in her features. She had dark brown, wavy hair that went a little bit past her shoulders. She had soft-colored blue eyes and a light tan skin tone as if her skin was just gracefully poked by the sunlight. It was pale compared to the other Field-workers' sunburnt skin. When I came to her, I said, "What are you doing with those rocks?"

She looked up at me and sighed. "I'm categorizing them by color," she said as she gestured to row of different rocks. "It's kind of difficult since a lot of them are black." Once again she looked with tired blue eyes and sighed. "Listen. Why don't you just make fun of me and get over with it? We will both save time," the girl said in a fed-up voice.

"I'm not here to make fun of you. I was wondering if you wanted to play with Neldge and me over there," I told the girl with a smile. She replied with a confused expression and then an even bigger smile than mine.

"Are there rocks over there?" She asked in testing-the-waters tone.

"Lots! Come on! I'm sure we can help you order them." The girl stood up and walked over to Neldge with me. When we sat down, we introduced ourselves to her, and she told us her name was Relsha.

We played and played until the sun went down, and we were so happy we had discovered others just like us. Each social class had some five-year-old outcast, and those outcasts made an everlasting friendship that is still alive today.

Relsha and Neldge aren't my only friends, though. There's a boy named Caul who I have known since I was four. He's about six years older than me. He would keep watch over me when my parents were at work and Uncle Skark was busy. Caul is quite large and strong. He looks quite menacing with the very dark brown locks of wavy hair falling on his forehead above his dark blue eyes, but really, Caul's just a big sweetheart and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. We had a lot of fun running around District 6 together and playing near the fountain in the center of the District. We still do have fun, but we mostly joke now. Over the years, Caul and I have grown very close. He is practically my brother, and one of my closest friends.

I also talk to some other kids my age during school. I usually chat with Jemb and Hickory, or when we work together in class and Relsha and Neldge are not there, I would work with Cassava. Hickory and Jemb are best friends and are some of the only boys I talk to. They are very kind and are also pretty intelligent. Jemb hast the caramel hair of the Remediers and shockingly bright blue eyes. He's about my height and is pretty funny. Hickory, who is also a Remedier, has a light brown hair and amazing blue eyes with what look like small licks of green flame all around the edge. It's a shockingly beautiful color. I don't love (or "like") either of these boys, but I enjoy their company.

Cassava has very light blond hair with pale skin, and she has very deep, yet bright green eyes. She doesn't talk much, but neither do I so we work well together when we are both without friends. Her friends are other merchant girls, but none of those girls are in the classes we share.

I loved my life as a young child. My family was well off with money coming from both my mother and my father, so we always had enough to eat. I had friends, family and a roof over my head. But things didn't stay that way. They changed. For the worse.

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading! Please review! I need to know how it is.<strong>


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